Tag: pvp

In 5.4, knockbacks will now share a very harsh diminishing return, rendering people immune to further knockbacks for ten seconds after the first.

Area knockback effects now all share a diminishing return category. After a player has been moved by one of these spells, the player will be immune for 10 seconds. This new category applies to: Fellash, Gorefiend’s Grasp, Glyph of Explosive Trap, Thunderstorm, Typhoon, Ursol’s Vortex, and Whiplash.

Not being able to typhoon back into a Vortex is going to be pretty bad. I get wanting to block class stacking knockbacks in arena, but double-tapping moonkin is just silly.

A few changes came out after this, which haven’t been officially posted:

Cyclone range was reduced to 25 yards, but now the Balance/Restoration Druid PvP Gloves yet again increase range by 5 yards.

I’m excited if Starfall not breaking CC actually works.

For nostalgia, here’s a hotfix that was applied back on July 1st, 2011:

Starfall is no longer hitting targets that are within 40 yards if they are not in combat with the druid or his/her party/raid members. It is targeting all hostile characters in combat with the druid’s party/raid members, is not hitting Stealth characters, is not breaking crowd control effects, and is not targeting nearby critters.

There was quite a bit of Moonkin PvP today in Dawn’s Blossom on beta, and I was able to get a feel for how PvP is shaping up. I’m a bit concerned.

First off, the loss of Insect Swarm as a DoT really makes hardcasting much more important, and it’s still very hard to do that considering how many classes have an interrupt/spell pool lockout. And to counter, Solar Beam still has a high cooldown and is not effective against a caster more than once.

So far it appears our snares and roots are right where they should be, although I’m not sure about reducing the charges on Nature’s Grasp from 3 to 1.

Right now, besides hardcasting, the only option we have is to spam moonfire and utilize Lunar Showers. Additionally, we will no longer get Nature’s Grace right out of the gate in arena, since it is solely tied to Eclipse now.

An ability that should be useful for druids is Celestial Alignment, but honestly, the usefulness is limited for a few reasons:

The initial strike is not applied for both moonfire and sunfire, you only get the additional DoT ticks. This is pretty crippling.

Since there’s only one initial strike it only stacks lunar shower once per application.

Lunar/Solar energy resets to 0 when you’re done.

I think the issues with Celestial Alignment are easily fixable. Right now, it sets your energy to 0 at the start and finish of Celestial Alignment. I propose we no longer set the energy to 0 at the end. Starfire, Starsurge, and Wrath do not gain/consume energy under Celestial Alignment, so the only energy gains would be from our 4 piece PVP bonus. I’ve verified that we properly get energy when crit under Celestial Alignment.

Also, causing Moonfire to apply the Sunfire initial damage under Celestial Alignment would help out a lot for burst as well.

Fixing Celestial Alignment alone won’t fix our problems with hardcasting and interrupts, but it’s a start. Perhaps some sort of interrupt immunity (or even 50% change of immunity) while under Owlkin Frenzy would do the trick.

I’ve been getting a bit more into PVP, so I’m going to start introducing some more PVP posting. To start, a gripe of the week:

Okay, Blizzard. I understand that Retribution Paladins were pretty derpy in PvE and needed a boost. Great. I’m glad they’re buffed. That being said: Couldn’t you have found a way to do it to Retribution Paladins only? I’m tired of getting smashed in the face by Protection Paladins with their vengeance stacked to the max, and dead before I can even get a [spell]2908[/spell] off. I really feel sorry for the classes that can’t wipe Vengeance.

Hi all. Monsterbaby of the all Druid guild “Druids of the Beast” sent me this a few weeks back and I missed it in my inbox. I’d like to invite you to our first guest poster, who writes a great opinion on season 10 PVP. Please leave your feedback. I’m always looking for guest posters, and if you are engaging enough, there may be a more permanent spot for you!

-Sunfyre

“The new season was kick started a while back and it is already possible to spot the new strengths and weaknesses of the classes. A great number of restoration druids have turned feral – if they didn’t already during the last season. Feral is superior in arena, and you very frequently see your opponent consisting of a feral druid.

However resto druids are not to be underestimated, despite you get the feeling they lack the powerful direct heal for arena. Resto druids are a key element to Rated Battlegrounds. Usually resto druids are to be found as offensive healers, while they can heal a great number of people while running, without getting interrupted.

Moonkins are still the rarest druid spec to find in PvP, you do however bump into them once in a while, usually when you find them in RBG in the top of damage done, with their powerful and fast dots and starfall.

However the druid is still very doable in PvP in all three specs in this season, and having three sets of PvP gear to choose from, you have loads of possibilities.

The gear in season 10, is a major upgrade compared to the last set. Many smaller guilds, which haven’t started in Firelands, nearly stopped raiding, due to the fact, the Honor and Conquest gear is such a big upgrade, compared to the PvE gear.

So when it comes to ups and downs in the new season, it is definitely positive, that druids are still strong in every spec. In arena, you will mostly find druids being feral, due to the lack of abilities of moonkins, and the less powerful direct healing, compared to other healing classes. But it is definitely not impossible to go far in arena, with any spec – as long as you have the skills for it.

The downside of this season is definitely the massive upgrade of gear. The size of the upgrade compared to the amount of time you need to spend to get it, is very unbalanced in my eyes. This also leads to a lot of inexperience people, entering battlegrounds just to farm honor, to receive a strong set of gear, with no intention of using it for PvP further on. But this isn’t really any news, while it has been like that in most seasons.

Another downside with the new season is, you cannot cap conquest points by doing arenas only. This leads to a lot of inexperienced people, wanting to do RBGs, while the skill level and tactical requirement is a lot higher than arenas. Again, it is just to receive a strong set of gear, without having any intention in heading into high rating – so most people are fooling around at incredible low rating.

What I can recommend is, to do Rated Battleground with the same team, over and over again. It is great fun, and with the flexibility of going into several specs, that are all equally strong in RBGs, you can always be sure to get a spot, in case a healer, ranged dps or melee is missing. “

The change to Moonkin Form is nice, it’s basically giving us Disentanglement. I’m curious to see if they meant “all rooting effects”, (such as frost nova). I’d hope so.

The Sudden Eclipse change (4pc PVP bonus) seems like a pretty drastic one, although I would have expected it to grant 20 lunar and 13 solar energy.

Your thoughts?

I apologize for the tardiness in my posts. I have been really busy working away from home (but in sunny Southern California) the last few weeks, and will continue to be working here through June. I’ve stopped raiding at this point and you guys are my only connection to my World of Warcraft world! Also, kudos to Balourd for stepping in and posting in my absense.

While the other changes I announced did not make the patch notes (they were in previous beta builds that got rolled into 4.0.3a), the following change was made to the 4pc PVP set.

PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

I must admit I’m a bit underwhelmed. 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy every 6 seconds? That’s really not enough.

Personally, they need to somehow make a glyph, or an ability, that allows you to instantly proc an Eclipse. Give it .. say, a 3 minute cooldown. Even a 5 minute cooldown. You just need it once in arena.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed at all of the QQing by other classes when you kill them just using instants? (Moonfire, insect swarm, starsurge on shooting stars proc, starfall, moonfire, and more moonfire). I’m sorry. Would you like me to stand there and cast a 3 second spell so you can counterspell, kick, pummel, skull bash, etc., etc., etc.?

Squawkbox

Latest on Mon, 08:16 am

Athosian: @Thravia - at 16.5k crit u can effectively stack mastery. But.. you must have the T16 4set in order to not loose out on procs.

Thravia: Hi Sunfyre.
According to all my calculations, and simulationcrafts, mastery is better than both haste and crit, and especially better than haste once you get past the GCD cap - so why are all balance druids going full on with crit/haste?
I am having trouble figuring out what is most effective, and I am currently creating a BiS list for 5.4, but I don't know if I should go with a mastery/haste build, or crit/haste.
Here is a chart of my stat weights, http://i.imgur.com/lQMfnFV.png (I am currently at 10300 haste, 16000 crit, and 547 item level)

Kogot: Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for having this page! I love it!

Sunfyre: Thravia: Not sure. I'm curious how this interacts with the nerf. If it's 8% on all targets, that'd be nice.

Sunfyre: Quiver: I'd stick with the lower BP until you can comfortably hit the higher one without sacrificing too much crit.

Thravia: Hi Sunfyre. Whats your thougths on the new T16 set bonus? It's been changed again.

Quiver: Hi Sunfyre!
I am low ilvl Boomkin (around 517). After getting the 1st haste breakpoint(5273) i started stacking as much crit as possible. If i squeeze my gear, i can get to the 2nd haste breakpoint (10296); now, my question is: should i somewhat neglect crit and go for that 2nd haste plateau?
Thanks in advance!

Manax: Hello Sunfyre, do you think balance druids one of the worst dps classes in mop? I mean... look at worldoflogs, there are no balance druids in the top dps sections at no boss. Always WL, Mages or hunter that are good on ranged bosses. And AOE dps poor too, compared to other classes. What do you think?

Sunfyre: It depends if you have RPPM proc'd items. If you have two RPPM items (or just the legendary meta), you'll want to do the pre-Solar start (and you immediately proc CA once you hit Solar).

Nodotx: Sunfyre, is one channelling pulse towards Lunar still the ideal opener? i.e. Starfall > Wrath > Lunar Eclipse?
I saw this reply recently on a thread:
"I'm not sure why OP still says start fight pre-lunar, long time ago I switched to Solar eclipse.
I pre pot, starfall, (one dot), CA + INCA (or 3x treants), dotting (by this time most if not all procs are up- both dots AND treants enjoy it) and starifre\ss, starfall again.
when u leave CA u auto moving to lunar eclipse- which get u 3rd starfall.
with the old opner, Until u enter lunar, and starfire\ss to 0 energy and poping ca- most procs are pretty much over :P"